1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a ski binding or a snowboard binding having boot holder components on the front end or the toe end and on the rear end or the heel end, being arranged on a rail guide on the ski end or on the snowboard end, extending in the longitudinal direction of the ski or snowboard.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A corresponding ski binding is known from German Utility Model 91 17 298 U1. According to this publication, separate guide rail plates are arranged on the ski for the boot holder component on the toe end and on the heel end, with the above-mentioned components being guided displacebly in these guide rail plates in the longitudinal direction of the ski. The boot holder components are connected by means of toothed rods to a pinion which is accommodated in a housing arranged between the two guide rail plates and which engages with the two toothed rods in such a way that the boot holder components are moved toward or away from one another, depending on the direction of rotation, as the pinion is rotated. The set positions of the boot holder components are locked by means of a lock for the pinion or a locking device by means of which at least one boot holder component can be locked on the respective guide rail plate.
The gearbox having the pinion is arranged so that it is movable vertically such that the toothed rods can be lifted up from the top side of the ski in the area of the pinion in the case of flexing movements of the ski.
International Patent WO 95/05219 discloses a snowboard whose supporting structure has two countersunk guide rail pairs integrated into it. Two sliding blocks, each of which has a borehole with an internal screw thread to receive fastening screws of snowboard bindings, are guided displaceably but unrotatably in each guide rail. When the fastening screws are screwed into the threaded boreholes with a significant torque, the sliding blocks and thus the snowboard bindings are fixedly secured on the snowboard or in the guide rails. The guide rails offer the possibility of practically infinitely variable positioning of the bindings on the snowboard.
As a rule, however, bindings on skis and snowboards are secured directly with fastening screws that have previously been screwed into boreholes provided in predetermined positions on the ski or snowboard.
The object of this invention is to permit rigging of ski bindings and snowboard bindings mostly without the use of tools and to permit the lowest possible burden on the ski or snowboard due to the binding.
This object is achieved according to this invention by a ski binding or a snowboard binding having boot holder components on the front end or the toe end and on the rear end or the heel end. The boot holder components can be displacable and secured vertically in a fixed manner on the ski with a form-fitting connection on a rail guide. The rail guide extends in the longitudinal direction of the ski on top of the ski or the snowboard, said rail guide being integrated into the ski or snowboard and being connected or connectable by means of connection elements in the longitudinal direction of the rail guide on a holder that is or can be secured in a fixed manner on the ski or snowboard between the boot holder components.
This invention is based on the general idea of inserting boot holder components into guide rails which are present on the ski or snowboard and securing said boot holder components by means of a form-fitting connection in the longitudinal direction of the rail guide. The boot holder components are further fixed in the longitudinal direction of the rail guide by means of connection elements that are separate from the ski or snowboard, said connection elements are anchored in a practically fixedly predetermined position on a holding device.
This invention offers the advantage that the ski or snowboard can be designed to withstand high loads in the area of the holding device without having any negative effect on flexibility, and tensile forces occurring between the boot holder components can be largely kept away from the structure of the ski or snowboard.
This offers the advantageous possibility of arranging rail guides with very flexible guide rails, such as single rails, double rails, T-shaped rails or U-shaped rails, in particular even segmented guide rails, which may be desirable from the standpoint of optimum bending behavior of the ski and snowboard.
According to a first preferred embodiment of this invention, the holding device or a housing of the holding device may be securable in particular on a central section of the rail guide, i.e., the rail guide is also used for the holding device.
Instead of this, it is also possible and advantageous for the holding device or its housing to be integrated at least partially into the ski or snowboard or into the structure of the ski or snowboard.
In addition, this invention also claims protection for a ski binding or a snowboard binding having boot holder components on the front end or the toe end and on the rear end or the heel end. The boot holder components can be connected in the longitudinal direction of the ski by means of connection elements to a holding device which is arranged between the boot holder components, said connection elements being adjustable against a self-locking effect, that is, adjustable to provide some resistance to further toe-to-heel movement of the connection elements once adjusted. The boot holder components and holding device are secured displaceably on the ski or the snowboard in a fixed manner in the vertical direction with a form-fitting connection on a guide rail extending in the longitudinal direction of the ski or snowboard.
This implements the general idea of providing a continuously effective restricted guidance for locking the respective positions set for the boot holder components such that it cannot be eliminated inadvertently or on purpose.
In an especially expedient embodiment, the connection elements are formed by a threaded spindle which is in an axially fixed rotational mount on the holding device and is screwed with a right-handed threaded section into an element with an internal screw thread of the one boot holder component, and a left-handed threaded section is screwed into a corresponding element having an internal screw thread on the other boot holder component, so that with a rotational adjustment of the threaded spindle, the boot holder components are brought either closer together or farther apart from one another. With this arrangement, the two boot holder components are displaced toward one another in opposite directions when the threaded spindle is turned.
Instead of this, it is also possible to provide separate threaded spindles for the two boot holder components. With this design, it is optionally also possible to provide for each threaded spindle to be mounted in an axially fixed manner on the respective boot holder component and screwed into an internal screw thread element on the holding device to permit variation of the distance between the boot holder component and the holding device through a rotational adjustment of the respective spindle.
In all embodiments, the boot holder components may each have a base plate that is displaceable in the respective rail guide and is or can be connected to the holding device by means of the connection element. Then a front or rear boot holding device is mounted on the respective base plate, in which case one of these boot holding devices may be arranged displaceably relative to a base plate against a push-off resiliency which attempts to push this boot holding device in the direction of the other boot holding device. This push-off resiliency guarantees that the boot to be secured will be held in the boot holder components without any play; in addition, in the case of flexing movements of the ski, unwanted twisting between the boot and the boot holder components is prevented.